Posts by OneEyedJoe

11

Is confrontational "New Atheism" undermining the cause of atheism?

by EdenOne in

interesting debate between lawrence krauss and greg epstein.. watch the debate on al-jazeera.. what do you think?.

eden.

OneEyedJoe

I think both groups do good and we should have people that are confrontational and debate in a manner that holds their opponents accountable for using fallacy and cheats to defend their case (ala dawkins/harris/hitchens). Folks like that, that didn't back down, played a huge role in planting doubts in me early on because while I still held on to the JW lies for some time, I knew that many of the terrible things they said about god really had no defense that was intellectually honest. Some people are ready to be held accountable for their lack of logic. At the same time, others will be much more likely to be won over by different approaches like establishing atheist groups that demonstrate that atheists are no less moral or purpose in life than theists.

I say let everyone fight against the insanity of religion in their own way and they'll reach different groups of people. One group may turn off a few people to atheism, but they'll reach others that would otherwise been content to stay put were atheists only seeking to "form alliances" with them. One group may turn people off, and the other will reassure them. One group may fail to reach some due to their pulling punches, the other group will find them. There's a time and a place for both points of view and both strategies.

35

Well... im disfellowshipped now.

by pale.emperor in

very long story.

i've been away from this site for a while.. basically, i tried to leave.

handed in my disassociation letter, it kicked up a storm and 2 weeks later i was disfellowshipped.

OneEyedJoe

Just terrible, I'm so sorry how this has gone for you. Being betrayed by a spouse for leaving the cult is a tremendously difficult thing. No one deserves to be treated like that. And having your daughter in the middle of it - I can't imagine how difficult that makes it.

Make sure you record everything - all the times your wife needs you to watch her, all the times that your wife goes back on agreements for when you get to see her, etc. Talk to a lawyer. IMO don't try to go back - show your daughter that you stand strong and have integrity and she'll follow. I wish you the best of luck whatever you do.

36

But where else should we go? Can you answer this question?

by purrpurr in

jw
friends

having watched many jc youtube videos one question that gets asked is "where else would you go?".

in other words if not jehovah's witnesses then what other religion or organisation would you go to?.

it's one that i have trouble answering, what would you say?.

OneEyedJoe

If you're in a burning building, you first worry about getting out. No one stays in the building because they don't know where else they'll go to find shelter from the elements. When revelation tells us "get out of her, my people" there is no equivocation and no allowance for delay on the basis of planning your next destination. Clearly the only right course is to first get out, then start worrying about where to go next.

34

So Today Was My Wife's First Ever Birthday Party

by dubstepped in

she turned one today, and 36 earlier this week.

we planned a big party, big for two people that have never thrown a party before.

we rented a church fellowship hall because 1. it was nice and big and affordable and 2. it was kind of awesome to throw a party in a place we would have never ventured in our previous life.

OneEyedJoe

Congrats! Though it's not a party until the beheadings start. You guys will get the hang of it eventually.

30

What would you like to have known about JWs before deciding whether to get baptised?

by slimboyfat in

if you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing about jws would you do it?

and what would you choose to say to yourself?

do you think you could have convinced yourself not to get baptised if you chose the right thing to say?

OneEyedJoe

I'm pretty sure the misquotes and associated lies in the creation book would've done the trick for me. I always valued truth over everything else, I was enamored with the idea that I had the absolute truth and I put that ahead of everything else.

The timing might matter somewhat - if I could talk to a 17/18 year old me, I have no doubt I'd be able to wake myself up. I was really close to leaving, but hadn't gotten past the apostaphobia enough to do the research to prove to myself that it's a cult. If I had just one little push, I would've been out for good then. What i wouldn't give to do that so I could've started building a normal life in college instead of in my 30s, way behind the curve.

166

Mobile Hotspot - JWFACTS.COM - Assembly & Conventions

by thedepressedsoul in

here is an idea i tested.

works at both assemblies and conventions.

i have noticed at the last convention and at my last assembly that when i opened up my wifi setting, tons of hotspots came up for people tethering their tablets to their smart phones.

OneEyedJoe

Assuming you don't want anyone to actually connect, is there a way that you could create the hotspot as an open network but still prevent connections? I'm just thinking about it because a lot of people have their phones set (I think in many cases, it's the default setting) to alert them when an open connection is available. So you might get more people checking it if you broadcast something that doesn't require a password.

4

Saw this on Facebook and it sent chills down my spine

by stephanie61092 in

jw
friends

i saw this on my feed this morning and i had to share:.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/billboard-seeking-to-reunite-broken-scientology-families-coming-to/2285112.

the billboard says: to my loved one in scientology...call me.

OneEyedJoe

When I was a Witness I would have thought this was terrible, but never associated it with shunning. After all, WTS was the "true" religion, and its shunning was right to do.

Same here, at least when I was at my peak cultiness. Scientologists are horrible! They shun family members just so they can hide from the truth that they're in a dangerous cult! Nothing like JWs, we lovingly encourage people to return to Jehovah by demonstrating our loyalty to him above all else.

Looking back, it's disturbing how deluded I was.

12

Fundamentalism Vs Radicalism

by freemindfade in

i had a thought this morning and i am putting it out for discussion.. when a christian is a nutjob we call them fundamentalist but a nutjob muslim is "radical".. doesn't one detach the person from the religion while one puts them square at the root?

shouldn't we call radical muslim terrorists "fundamentalist"?

.

OneEyedJoe

I think the difference is you can be fundamentalist without being radicalized. You can believe your holy book is the infallible word of god and is to be taken literally (fundamentalist) without going out and killing people (radical) because of it. That's my take on it, anyway.

Though, in the case of Islam it becomes much more difficult to be a fundamentalist without being radical just due to the very nature of the religion so the two become somewhat more interchangeable.

7

How Human was Charles Taze Russell?

by TerryWalstrom in

jw
friends

pastor russell's life fascinates me.

because he seems like a person who never had any fun.

such a serious face without a smile to be found!

OneEyedJoe

Such a serious face without a smile to be found!

Well to be fair, smiling for photos did not become customary until well beyond CTR's time.

I think he was just a guy that was, to borrow a phrase, a captive of a concept - that Jesus had returned and the end was near. The difference between him and the average nutjob is he had money to build something. And so he did.

9

We Cannot Understand Because We Are Not Perfect

by berrygerry in

starting this thread because of katewild's post.

(from where came god?).

the unanswerable questions of life are usually attributed to: "we are imperfect, so cannot understand.

OneEyedJoe

I'm so tired of the myth that we only use 10% of our brains.

But, yet, to the larger point - in my book anyone who asserts that there's something that we can't hope to understand is hiding something from their audience, and often from themselves as well. Most of the time "it's impossible to understand" really means "it's impossible to explain without generating contradictions." Sometimes it just means "I'm lying to you and don't want you to look deep enough to see the lie."